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Florida Atlantic jumping to Conference USA

According to several reports, the Owls will leave the Sun Belt Conference in all sports, most likely in 2014 and join C-USA in 2013. FAU is the fourth program this year to leave the Sun Belt for C-USA, including rival FIU, which announced the move in May. ESPN’s Brett McMurphy first reported FAU’s decision.
Middle Tennessee was announced as C-USA’s 13th member on Wednesday morning and FIU and North Texas announced they would be bailing on the sinking conference last spring. The four will join Charlotte, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio as C-USA newcomers.

FAU has been a member of the Sun Belt since 2005. It was the football co-champions in 2007 and earned the conference’s spot in the New Orleans Bowl. The program has declined since, bottoming out in 2011 when it finished 1-11.

FAU has started to rebuild under first year coach Carl Pelini and is 3-8, 2-5 in the league, entering Saturday’s season finale against Louisiana-Lafayette at FAU Stadium.

C-USA acted quickly to rebuild its membership to 14 after losing East Carolina and Tulane to the Big East this week.

The Owls are attractive because of their location, the new 30,000-seat on-campus football stadium and they will once again be a nice partner with FIU. The Owls and Panthers now will be in position to continue their rivalry and keep alive the Shula Bowl.

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